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After forking over $200,000 to $300,000 and waiting 12 to 18 months for delivery, he faces difficult questions. Which ex-spouse's home should he drive by first, and how slowly? Which suit—the bird's-eye blue Brioni, or the charcoal Ermenegildo Zegna -- goes best with the carta da zucchero leather interior? And, most important, how does he politely tell his dense cousin Earl: "No, you can't borrow the 599 GTO for your wedding"?

Then, after sliding into that baby-soft, hand-stitched leather seat, pushing the start button on the console, and listening raptly to the screaming V8 or V12 engine, he (the overwhelming majority of Ferrari owners are male) must deal with a dispiriting truth: There's simply no public street or highway in America where he can fully enjoy the machine -- make the brute do what it was born to, sing thunderously like Wagner's Wotan -- without running afoul of the law.

Ferraris are beloved by everyone, including, unfortunately, the police. Driving at 65 miles per hour in a 562-horsepower 458 Spider is like forcing Usain Bolt to run the 100-meter dash on one leg. Driving at even half the roadster's 202-mph top speed is akin to putting a flashing yellow Go Directly to Jail sign on the roof.

But all is not lost, if the Ferrarista is willing to open his wallet a bit further. For a trifling $50,000 to $60,000 a year, he can enter the Ferrari Challenge -- a series of weekend races for those who absolutely, positively need a regular speed fix. Of course, that doesn't cover the cost of getting the car in racing tune or, heaven forbid, having to repair it after a mishap at the track. But what do you want for a measly 60 grand?

These Challenge races, which began in 1993, are held in April through September on closed courses in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The participants -- all Ferrari owners -- compete not only to win individual 40-to-60 minute contests, but also to earn points that determine the top driver in each region over a year.

The winner gets bragging rights, and a chance to drive in the finale in Italy, where the top finishers from around the world vie for Ferrari's global amateur-racing championship.

The Toronto course left little room for error -- bad news when a few dings can cost tens of thousands to fix.
John Hryniuk for Barron's

"If you are into cars, and have a competitive spirit, it's a great way to satisfy that spirit," says Harry Cheung, who won the July 8-10 Challenge in Toronto, the first ever held in that city. Cheung, one of Google's original engineers, is third in the North America Challenge this year, his third season of racing.

The races are marketing, as well as sporting, events. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Ferrari's chairman, says that they create a community of drivers around the world. "It's also another opportunity to test the cars and advance research on them. These are street cars, but they are made for racing," he adds.

Early in the purchase process, dealers tell prospective Ferrari owners about the Challenge. The company typically changes the vehicle-eligibility rules every few years, cycling in new models and removing older ones -- only the 458 and not the 430, for example, will be allowed in 2012. That helps spark sales of the newest models.

As advertising, the Challenge seems to work, too. Normally, at any one race weekend, there are 20 to 30 participants. In Europe and South America, where Formula 1 is very popular, this non-pro series receives newspaper and even TV coverage. And, last June, some 10,000 people paid to see the first Challenge races held in China.

NO WONDER, THEN, that Ferrari's commitment to the series is robust. In Toronto, the official Challenge contingent arrived in 16 tractor-trailers, each carrying one or two racing Ferraris for the participants, as well as specially trained mechanics, spare parts, tools, work space and computerized mechanical-analysis systems. In essence, the trucks were rolling machine shops bearing corporate pit crews.

To participate, drivers pay an annual $40,000 fee to Ferrari -- in part, that covers the cost of tires and driving suits -- and $13,000 to $20,000 to their local dealerships, which manage the logistics of delivering cars, parts and mechanics. None of that, by the way, covers professional race-car-driving lessons, spare parts -- sometimes flown in overnight from Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy -- or travel and hotel expenses.

Indeed, with high-tech carbon-fiber bumpers costing $3,000 each, and these amateur racers hitting over 170 to 190 mph on straightaways, an "eventful" Challenge weekend can be as costly as it is fun.

The Toronto event, held on public streets lined with barriers, was particularly difficult, and saw a crack-up in the first turn of the first race. No one was hurt.

Unlike a real track, "it's very bumpy. There's no run-off area, so you have to be real precise. There's no margin for error," observes Enzo Potolicchio, a Venezuelan who was the 2010 North American Challenge champ. Having hit a wall in Toronto, he knows whereof he speaks.

For the most part, Cheung had an easy time posting his win. Potolicchio was rapidly moving up the board, until an accident finished off his chances of winning the Toronto rally, but he's still first in the North America Challenge.

Damage means money, lots of it. You can drop anywhere from "$10,000 to $80,000 per weekend to participate in the races," says Mike Louli, 56, a Toronto-based financial advisor for Assante Wealth Management.

More Fun Than Searching the Web: Harry Cheung, an original Google engineer, topped the field in Toronto.
John Hryniuk for Barron's

Louli, who manages about 700 million Canadian dollars (US$710 million) for clients, has participated in the Challenge since 1995, and was the 2006 champ. "It's almost like an addiction," says Louli, who owns eight everyday Ferraris and two more that are modified for the series. Indeed, it's not unusual for serious Challenge drivers to bring two cars, in case an accident puts one out of commission.

Competitors may not be professionals, but they usually have taken race-driving lessons. The ethos of the Challenge, which calls participants "gentlemen drivers," is relaxed competition. Overly aggressive maneuvers are discouraged. Unlike in the pros, where slower cars often purposely block faster ones, the right of way is supposed to be ceded to the swifter vehicle. Says Cheung: "The goal is not to smack up."

The goal also is to have the kind of prestigious fun that one can have only in a car with the prancing-horse emblem -- fun that translates into strong brand loyalty.

Louli, for example, recently became a new father. With none of his 10 two-seat Ferraris capable of transporting him, wife and baby en famille, he's pondering a $300,000 solution. For a dyed-in-the-wool Ferrarista, after all, nothing says practical or family-friendly like a four-seat, four-wheel-drive FF -- the Ferrari Four.

Where the Sales Pitch Meets the Road

The Ferrari Challenge racing series is part of a savvy corporate strategy aimed at maintaining growth at a niche car company.

The Challenge complements Ferrari's main advertising medium: Formula 1 racing -- a glamorous sport in which the car maker's position is similar to the New York Yankees' in baseball. (The current season, alas, has been disappointing for Ferrari.)

The company's annual F1 racing budget reportedly exceeds 200 million euros (about $272 million at the recent exchange rate of 1.36 euros per dollar), not chump change for an organization that had €1.9 billion in revenue in 2010, up 8% from 2009. Operating profit for Ferrari, which is 90% owned by Italy's Fiat, was €302 million, up 23%, with an operating margin of 16%.

Mention the word "China," and Ferrari's boss, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, has plenty of reasons to smile.
Courtesy of Ferrari

Just 6,500 Ferraris were sold last year; in contrast, Porsche sells about 80,000 vehicles annually. This year, the total could come to 7,500. And it should rise again next year, now that the FF -- the company's first four-seat, four-wheel-drive hatchback -- has been introduced. Already, the company has 800 orders for the new model in hand.

In an interview with Barron's, Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo waxed enthusiastic about his company's performance in several markets and its overall 2011 outlook. "China is fantastic," he said. "By the end of the year, it will become the second- or third-largest market for Ferrari." In this year's first six months, Ferrari sold 378 cars in China, up 116%. Sales in the U.S., the Italian car maker's top market, rose 23%, to 939 in the half. "Our goal is to do a little bit better than last year.…The U.S., China, U.K. and Germany are very, very strong markets this year." In the half, revenue jumped 20%, to nearly €1.1 billion.

BESIDES SALES OF NEW MODELS, the company's revenue comes from the refurbishment of classic Ferraris; the sale of actual Formula 1 racers, some of which command as much as €2.4 million; and a wide-ranging brand-name merchandising business that generates roughly 20% of Ferrari's total sales. The merchandising business, through which the company sells products ranging from watches to shoes to drivable toy cars -- revved up last year, with the opening of a Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi. It drew 100,000 visitors in its first three months. "There is huge unrealized potential in theme parks," the Ferrari chief declares.

While the supercar maker's results show up in Fiat's earnings, they are almost invisible in the Turin-based car maker's €5 billion stock-market value. For that reason, Sergio Marchionne, the boss of Fiat and its U.S. unit, Chrysler, has been making some noises about a partial public flotation of Ferrari.

A public offering of Ferrari would "unlock value" in Fiat, asserts François Colli, a principal in Paris-based hedge fund FairView Asset Management, which holds Fiat shares. With Ferrari's brand, earnings and profit margins, and €650 million in net cash, a reasonable multiple would value it at about €4 billion, almost equal to Fiat's current stock-market value after the recent slump in auto shares. Some inside the Fiat empire assert that Ferrari is worth €6 billion. Both Marchionne and Cordero have been cagey about a potential initial public offering, but Colli speculates that it's likely to happen within two years. Currently, Fiat has its hands full with fixing Chrysler, and possibly arranging an IPO for that company by next year. But a Ferrari offering by 2013 seems reasonable, if one is to take place at all.

The bottom line: Driving 458s on a track certainly will remain the passion of only a tiny minority of investors. However, in a couple of years, lots of people could be keeping track of Ferrari shares.